Sunday, May 19, 2013

So I heard there is a new thing caused by our nonstop digital connectivity called FOMO - Fear Of Missing Out. Apparently, watching others through blogs, and twitter, and facebook, and pnterest, and instagram, and flickr, and so on and so on and so on has lead to this idea that we are failing because LOOK AT ALL THE AMAZING THINGS THAT OTHER PEOPLE ARE DOING WHILE YOU SIT THERE DRINKING COFFEE WORSHIPPING THE SHINY BOX.

At first I laughed but then I realized, that's probably legit. After all, I show you the pic of happy times at the museum, not the pic of me crouched into a bathroom stall cleaning the diapers of two nine year olds who pooped halfway through the Andy Warhol exhibit.

Basically, it's the digital version of Keeping Up With The Jones's.

Yesterday we had a ridiculous day on tap. Little girl soccer, big boy soccer, then big boy off to Boy Scout Camping overnight. That's a busy day for a family of six with two Special little guys in tow. But then, it rained overnight. And the camping trip was postponed. Suddenly I had a distraught ten year old on my hands. He'd practiced making eggs on the weekend for over three weeks so that he could cook them over the fire. To say he was devastated, would be quite the understatement.

He was then less than exuberant about having to go play soccer. They had him play goalie. Last year goalie was his nemesis position, but this year he's done a great job at it. Until yesterday - when a really aggressive opponent plus being in a really sad mood caused him to allow FIVE GOALS in one quarter. OMG. The team still won, but the boy was just completely defeated by life

It was determined that one of us should take him out, just go OUT and do stuff just with him. I volunteered, I think I choose to stay home too much, just because the hubby is always here but I kinda just wanted to be the one to take him elsewhere - to be the one who cheers him up.

We went to YoChill and he got to pick out his own yogurt and toppings. We sat outside and watched the gathering storm coming from the west and talked about WoW. I told him we could do whatever he wanted (within reason) and looked up movies but we'd really missed them all so he suggested we go to the nearby mall since we had the luxury of being without the little ones.

We stopped off at the Slingshot Speedway which is the worlds largest permanent slot car race track and for like five bucks you can rent and race a car, so I had a seat and let him race with the other kids. This is one of his favorite things to do at this mall, and something we don't normally do because the twins get cranky or impatient.

We also went to the AirSoft shooting range and it was the stuff that makes a mom who doesn't much like guns have a heart attack. I had to say no because it was not only too expensive for a casual day out, you're supposed to wear layers of clothes because they are shooting plastic bb's at one another. In the masks and clothes, they all looked like freaking terrorists. It was unnerving.

Instead of that we went to the Lego store which does not make me feel nervous and he had always wanted to make custom mini-figures so we had a go at that.

I kinda love the one in the turban and the lei of flowers.

We wandered down to Bass Pro Shop which makes me want to go camping so bad I can't stand it every time I go there. It makes camping out look easy and magical when in fact it's hard and dirty and hot and sweaty. But, I kinda love that place and we hadn't been in forever. It just so happened that we got there at feeding time for the big tank.

After a while the water begins to sparkle with the scales of fish being eaten by the bigger fish - the scales apparently popping off and floating around the tank as the feeder fish met their grisly end. Louis has my sense of humor as he was singing "The circle of life" at one point, causing me chuckle a bit.

It was grisly and we probably loitered here the longest watching the gars lure the little fish by being very still.

You shouldn't have FOMO though. It was a busy long day, and it wore me out. But I was determined to give a little guy whose special day got ruined, a good day. He doesn't GET a lot of JUST LOU days. His world is dominated by concessions and "maybe next time" responses.